Discoveries from Poland World Cinema

After a sleepless New Year’s Eve night, Jindra and his daughter Bára set out to search for their lost dog. The frustrating situation reopens unresolved conflicts. Bára blames Jindra not only for losing the dog, but also for his recent divorce from her mother. As they wander helplessly through deserted fields, Jindra tries to prove that he is not useless.

The filmmakers present a few examples of the usage of laser devices.

A Warsaw insurgent receives a card with a prayer from his daughter.

A man arrives at a desolate hotel, its eerie silence wrapping around him like a warning. As he wanders the dimly lit corridors, he finds no sign of life, only a lone, unattended meal waiting in the dining room, which he decides to eat. By nightfall, violent illness takes hold. In a desperate search for help, he staggers through the hotel’s darkness.

A road appears on the horizon, a star passes above the road. A journey begins. It turns out to be a journey through life and the 20th century. We can see the character’s point of view.

In a world where touch is forbidden, young masseuse Nina works using hand extensions to avoid direct physical contact. She attends ‘self-touch’ sessions and repeats mantras about safety and distance. But one day, she meets Zocha — and everything changes.

Excerpt from a discussion between a man and a woman at a sawmill. An adaptation of a short story by Yuri Kazakov.

KSW 100: Khalidov vs. Bartosinski was a mixed martial arts event that took place on Saturday November 16, 2024 at the PreZero Arena in Gliwice, Poland.

An almost one-year-old boy decides to embark on a dangerous journey from the living room to the garden.

A girl wakes up in a familiar, yet dull, environment having only the moon as her companion. Upon hearing a strange sound and finding a wall of ribbons she decides to explore the world beyond them.

In 1998, for the New Year’s Eve party at the Forum Fabricum club in Łódź, Zammenhoff created the video work called 'Manifesto'. The film was presented within an installation formed of many television sets and functioned as the party’s decor. The artist delivered an address in which he expressed a pessimistic evaluation of his own belief from the beginning of the decade in the potential of new techno-culture to radically transform reality.

The story of a young, talented man for whom poetry became the only meaning of existence. He paid the highest price for it. In the film, his loved ones recall their memories of Rafal Wojaczek: his fiancée, friends and, in archival sound recordings, his late parents and brother Andrzej. The filmmakers visited with the camera places important to the poet: his hometown of Mikolow, where his "poem-making" began, and Wroclaw, where he spent the last six most creative, but also most turbulent years of his life. For the first time, unknown manuscripts, typescripts, notes and drawings by Rafal Wojaczek collected at the Ossolineum in Wroclaw were published in this film.

Sports competitions hold an extraordinary status in our country. Athletes who achieve success are elevated to the status of gods, though even minor missteps can change the attitude of the masses. The director presents the customs and habits of Polish fans in a satirical manner.

The horror of male-female erotic relationships. A series of shocking love failures. They are hilarious for the viewers and terrifying for the protagonists.

A reconstruction of the events of the Warsaw Uprising, based on photographs taken over a period of two months by photojournalist Sylwester Braun, known as "Kris."

A surreal story of a flexible, deforming ball wandering around a world full of contradictions.

What would the world be like without humans? Closed cafés, loungers with no one to sit on them and empty parking lots may indicate an approaching apocalypse. It seems as if there is no life in this sterile world, but is it true? Adaptation of a poem by Sara Teasdale ‘There will come soft rains’ written in 1918.

Kochanowski's tragedy refers to the classic plot of ancient literature. The events presented in it precede the expedition of the Greeks against Troy, described in Homer's "Iliad". Greek envoys arrive in Troy, demanding the release of Helen, the wife of Menelaus, abducted by Prince Paris, also called Alexander. In fact, everything speaks in favor of giving beautiful Helena to her rightful husband.

An experienced breeder introduces a young girl to the crazy world of purebred dog shows.

The soul of a suicide man breaks out of his chest and experiences a lot of adventures. It enters the body of a king and a beggar. None of them is as comfortable as the body of the suicide man. Graves can surely guarantee peace and quiet.

A bored young woman interacts with the stranded objects of a black-and-white room, which take on their own lives as she begins to dream.

A record of one day in the life of a chronically ill man. It begins and ends with a fragment from a poem by Horace, who recommends to appreciate every dawn.

An animated film with documentary elements. The protagonists perform repetitive tasks at a CD factory. Observation of the production line is a pretext for seeking meaning, purpose, and time within the system.

An unknown cult consisting of religious freaks gets ready to perform a ritual, for which they will need a certain mysterious object. The location of this object is hidden in a philosophical cipher, which the analysts aren't able to decode.

A brave film about what is being talked about so much - the folders and their surprising impact on our daily lives. What were they all for? What did who do, what did they eat, what did they read, who did they meet with. Under the directive "you don't know what you might find useful," everything was of interest to the officers of the former political police. Thousands of files filled the vast basements of their headquarters. Twenty years have passed, the files have yellowed, their heroes have taken important positions in the new Poland. A new generation is entering adult life. Preoccupied with their affairs, they are making their first decisions in life. And the files are just waiting for someone to make use of them.

A warning against the harmful effects of smoking cigarettes on the lungs of a smoker. A parody of a health education film made in Antonisz's non-camera animation technique.

During the land reform, the priest encourages the peasants to accept the land, which puts himself at risk for forest gangs.

Clara looses one tooth while sleeping. Swallowed by a gigantic mouth, she enters an underground world where a Surreal Sci Fi advertising invites her to "ELECTRODENT" a clinic that promises to fix teeth... but not only.

Athletes wearing shooting targets on their chests hurdle. It is a dual sport discipline, people are divided into prey and predators.

A gloomy milking parlor filled with the sounds of Bach concerts from wheezing loudspeakers is the everyday life of Eric, a cow milker at the Milk Raj cooperative. Eryk is a young boy who abandoned his career as a photographer and lived in an industrial town, away from his family and friends. On the spot he met Marissa, a prostitute in a poor nightclub. They became friends. They both want to find their place in the world.

The script and the background of the film are inspired by the current situation of LGBTQ+ community in Poland. This is a story about two young men, their mutual love and the difficulties it brings. But first of all it is a story about art, how it is influences the people we love, and how through it we can pass on the love that surrounds us.

The main characters are stalked by an assassin who appeared out of nowhere.

It is 1969. Wiesiek has long hair, pants with patches, colored shirt and necklace beads. It is important for him to demonstrate rebellion. 10 years later. Wiesiek lives in the Bieszczady Mountains and gathers around them people who, like him, are looking for their place on earth. They work together, eat together and build a house together. Creating a community with others has now become the most important for life in Wieśka. Now it is his way.

Christmas Eve morning arrives – the first in Filemon's life. Final preparations for the evening dinner are underway. Boniface tells his friend about the custom of giving each other "stars" – meaning presents. Filemon takes this literally and decides to give Boniface a star for Christmas.

Among the stories about the family, the values embraced by Berbeka and the most important expeditions, there is one related to the winter expedition to Broad Peak. On 5th March 2013, the protagonist reached the summit, making his dream come true, but died on his way down to the base.

Documentary about the Polish fandom and various collectible Star Wars items from 70's and 80's. This is a sentimental retro journey to the times of PRL (Polish People's Republic), where passion and fantasy were meeting up with the sad reality of life under the communist oppression.

ince the 1970s, Robakowski has been experimenting with the category of the author, transferring the authorship of his works onto the film camera. Implementing the strategy of biological-mechanical records, Robakowski continues his experiments, carried out since the 1970s, consisting in the transfer of the authorship of the film onto the film camera, as well as initiates relations between the mechanical medium and the human organism. On the one hand, it embraces collaboration, on the other, human struggle with the machine, extending from the “integration” of its logic and the attempts at its “anthropomorphisation”.

Every morning, 12-year-old Wiktor’s grandmother lovingly wakes him up. Once he’s had breakfast and gotten dressed, Wiktor is ready for an intense day at ballet school, where he and his classmates are rehearsing for an important performance. All the proud parents will be sitting in the front row, and while Wiktor’s kind grandmother will of course come, the young dancer is desperately hoping that his father, who lives abroad, will be there, too. Wiktor wants nothing more than to make his father proud.

After a long break, brilliant artist and director Bogdan Dziworski is back making a new film. As he works, a unique relationship develops between the director and his young cinematographer, Paweł.

A story about a small drummer in a great army.

Bogdan and Roza are a dead marriage. They have been living together in one room, but they don’t speak to each other.

A film for little Staś is recorded on an amateur camera by a grownup Stan.